“I write the songs that make the whole world sing.”
No lack of self-confidence, there, eh?
Barry Manilow is one of those musicians who, like some politicians, people seem to either love or love to hate. There’s not a lot of middle ground about the reaction to this guy who held serious sway over pop and adult contemporary music during the 1970s with such hits as “I Made It Through The Rain,” “Copacabana,” “Mandy,” “Weekend In New England,” “Somewhere Down The Road,” and many more.
As the son of two hippie artists, we were far more likely to be listening to “Let it Be” or “Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds” or maybe some reggae or some Cat Stevens around my house than we were Barry Manilow during the height of his fame. And as the 80s rolled around and I started charting my own musical path, Manilow still wasn’t on the list. There was the Country & Western phase, and the punk phase (brief, I assure you), the Little Red Corvette stage and the heavy metal period. Every now and then my friends and I would hear a Manilow song on the radio and the typical reaction was to simulate retching: Manilow was then, and is largely still, really about as hip as a square.
So suffice it to say that I regarded this two disc set with a measure of ambivalence: basically, I decided that it was time to really see what Manilow had to offer, rather than just ignore him (better late than never, I suppose). The Essential Barry Manilow is, as it sounds, a career retrospective, combining twenty songs originally released by Arista Records a couple of years ago as The Ultimate Manilow with fourteen more (yes, you heard that right, fourteen more . . .).
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Article comments
1 - Triniman
Somebody shoot me.
2 - Nick Jones
Now I know what Truffaut meant when he titled one of his films Shoot the Piano Player.
3 - Michelle W.
I happen to think "the Essential Barry Manilow" is a pretty good start for people unfamiliar with Mr. Manilow's work. But if you want the real deal check out "the Complete Collection... And Then Some"... of course, he's not for everyone. To quote the man himself, "My music is like anchovies... some people love it, others get nauseous."